Forum speaker critiques media role in 2024 presidential campaign

FALLS VILLAGE — David D. Kirkpatrick, a staff writer for The New Yorker and a former investigative reporter for the New York Times, was critical of how the media have covered the 2024 presidential election at a Salisbury Forum talk Friday, Oct. 25 at Housatonic Valley Regional High School.

He said the press has produced “voluminous explorations” of what a second presidency of Republican Donald J. Trump would be like.

But this coverage “turned out to be a distraction.”

“What was the biggest surprise in this campaign?” he asked the audience.

Answer: The June 27 debate between then-candidate and incumbent President Joe Biden (D) and Trump.

The debate was a disaster for Biden, who appeared confused. After an outcry from his own party, on July 21 Biden announced he was withdrawing from the race. Vice-President Kamala Harris was subsequently chosen to replace Biden at the top of the Democratic ticket.

“There is no way to argue this was not an enormous lapse” on the part of the media, Kirkpatrick said.

He said the New York Times’ Peter Baker was writing about Biden’s decline as early as July 2022.

“He took a lot of static” for his reporting.

In February 2024, Special Counsel Robert Hur, who was investigating the case of Biden’s handling of classified documents, closed his investigation and declined to prosecute the President, saying “Biden would likely present himself to a jury ... as a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.”

Kirkpatrick said at this point the story “was out in public” and could not be ignored.

But he questioned why The Times then ran a piece labeled “analysis” that examined why the age question was hurting Biden more than Trump.

“They made it a sociological story.”

If Trump wins a second term, the press will be blamed for not reporting on Biden’s decline earlier, Kirkpatrick predicted.

“Wouldn’t Harris be better off if she’d had more time? Was Harris the best candidate?”